Videogames Scariest Titles

[marcus]

I guess playing Fatal Frame has put me in the mood for this thread.

My selection -

Doom 64 - An unusual choice perhaps, but not when you consider the amount of shocks you get from a mutant jumping out on you from nowhere, or the menacing sound of the CyberDemon as it tracks you around a level with you not quite knowing where it will surprise you from next. {additional - I always loved the Nintendo Doom, for me its the best one available with solid 3d, great level design and decent control)

Alien Resurrection - Simply one of the most frightening games Ive ever played. Made all the more so by its cumbersome control method, you really do panic when you catch a glimpse of an alien scurring along the ceiling and into the darkness, only to be powerless to stop it from launching itself out of the depths at you. A terrifying ordeal of a game.

Aliens - Who can forget the panic that sets in as your team mates are gradually picked off one by one? You see the screen change, you flick across to your teammate (normally at the peril of another) and panic as you miss-target a facehugger that wipes you our in a bloodcurdling sequence whereby the creature is clearly visible sucking your face off through the visor. Cuts to black and white interference, nigh, the end.

Silent Hill 2 - Without giving away spoilers, there was several perts of this game that were simply terrifying. One involves a gallows, and Ill say no more, but those who have played the game will surely agree that its not always visuals that make something effective, great use of sound can heighten a scenario immensely too.

Fatal Frame/Project Zero - Im into the second day and already this is perhaps the most frightening game Ive played, mainly due to the brilliance of its sequences, the superb useage of sound, and elements of surprise. A classic example of a wonderfully entertaining and unsettling videogame.

Which are your most frightening games, and importantly, why?

[Concept]

Silent Hill 3 for me, most probably. It's just...

Urgh.

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty.

[Gr0ver]

System Shock 2 would be an obvious addition to this list.

Scared the living **** out of me. Shodan was bad enough, but the EAX and the creepy moans of all the hybrids were just too much to bear at times. Brilliant use of sound throughout, in fact.

Hearing "YOUR FLESH BETRAAAAAAAYS YOUUU" as a repulsive dripping freak lurches towards you with a pipe is baaaad.

Thief/Thief 2 made similarly brilliant use of sound as well. Same (ish) engine, as I recall. The Dark engine, or whatever.

Some of the more supernatural levels of Thief bordered on the unplayable. Ever tried playing through "Return to the Cathedral" at night with an Audigy on board? ****ING DON'T.

Aliens Vs Predator as a marine, probably beats them all though. Genuinely, unplayable at times. I shat my pants. When you first venture out of your cabin into the basically pitch-black corridors, at the game's opening...bloody hell .

[Tom Salter]

Space Hulk: An oldie, but with a claustrophobic atmosphere against a relentless alien race, this one cannot be beaten. The reason I probably found this one so engrossing was the fact that at the time I was into all the Warhammer 40k figures, read the whole backstory as much as possible, including every short story I could find, and the game moulded this into an experience that sits at the top of the scary game pile.

Doom PSX: With an upgraded soundtrack to take advantage of the PS1's sound capabilities, this game cannot be underestimated in the massive impact it has had on the gaming world. Imagine, dark, dank corridors, with the snarling of relentless enemies in the background. Remember the huge Cyberdemons, where the player had two choices, to either run past them (heh, try) or take them on head-on. Either way was futile, and a damn scary process. Shame games these days don't give the player such a large, powerful enemy to fight.

Tomb Raider: A strange one this, hear me out...

When this first came onto the scene, I bought this game and Resident Evil 1 at the same time. I put on RE, and the dog incedent happened, and although the odd occasion I managed to jump out of my skin, the rest of the time was spent aimlessly wandering around corridors. However, Tomb Raider, through fantastic use of music and background effects immersed me in dark tombs, and really gave off that "holy ****, i'm in deep" feeling. Unforgettable for me.

[evilmatt]

System Shock 2, and the original Space Hulk game for me.

Seeing a blip on your scanner materialise into a Genestealer haring towards you in the first person mode whilst your gun is jammed was pants-wetting time back then

System Shock 2 just oozes creepy atmosphere though, best soundtrack to a scary game there is

[Gr0ver]

My tip for making all games as scary as going to a blind dentist -

Make sure there is a door behind you.

Playing the remake of Resi on the GC in my bedroom WITH THE DOOR BEHIND ME is sheer, pant-wetting terror.

Even harmless games of WE6 become a terrifying ordeal as you frantically wonder if you left the front door open and there's some hook wielding psycho slowly ascending your stairs.

[lordcookie]

Doom scared the crap out of me when it was first released. It is ages since I played it but I do remember one dark room which you had to enter to flick a switch at the other side. All you can hear are grunting noises of the monsters, you flick the switch and turn round to be faced with loads of them charging at you. Great stuff.

Rise of the Robots still sends shivers down my spine now.

[MD]

I dont have a great deal as games dont shock me as much anymore...

but

Alone in Dark - PC, yeah it ran on a 286 but this was well before the days of 3D graphics cards and Bio Hazard. But from the opening when a zombie came at you, and plants tried to eat you, from being sucked into hell if you tried to leave at the front door to scary ghosts. Everything was about tip toeing and trying to make sure you got to the next room alive. Shocks and surprises were aplenty, and the sound was sparse but effective, never finished it but playing it alone in a dark room made sure I had nightmares that night.

Doom - PC - Ran this on a 386DX-40 and it was near perfect. It scared me ****less when I was playing in the dark, with headphones in an empty house. The squiggle sounds were scary, and after walking around for a little while, opening a door and getting a horde after you would scare me. Once that pink thing on legs came out of a corner and I was so shocked I feel back of my chair, ruining a pair of headphones in the process.

Tomb Raider - Saturn - Like Marcus says, the music and the situations are well done and meeting that Dinosaur or a pack of wolves when your not expecting it is a very jump out of skin moment...

Halo - Xbox - It's funny that none of the Bio Hazards were that scary (well the voice acting in the first one was) or any of the other zombie fest games were scary, but Halo scared me but when I entered a room and this cyan sword came at me at great speed and I just wanted to run quickly, sweat and fear came over me until I was put out of my misery by being killed...

[Dache]

The first time I owned Doom was the 32X version. Yeah, stop laughing at the back there.

Anyway, anyway. I was... oh, this was, what, 1992? 93? I would've been 7 or 8. I'm on the final level with the two Barons of Hell in the huge Pentagram (remember that?). My friend, Pete, is watching. We fight our way over to the Pentagram room, and face the two storage things. I stop.

ME: Oh god. That's the Barons of Hell in there.
PETE: What? No it's not. They're just doors.
ME: No, no, I'm certain. I remember watching my cousin play this bit.
PETE: They're doors.
ME: I really don't think so.
PETE: Oh come on.
ME: Ah, well... okay, okay. I don't thi--

By this point, I'd walked over to the doors, which -- if you'll cast your minds back -- open automatically.

BARONS OF HELL: Moooooooaaaaggghh!
ME AND PETE: AAAAAAAGGRRGGHH! AAAGAGGGGHGHH!! AAAAAAGAGAGAGHHHHHHHHHH!!*
PETE: KILL IT, KILL THEM
ME: Aaaaggrrgh! Aahhhh! Oh ****! Fuuuuck!

I wasn't killing them very well. In fact, two minutes later, I had run out of ammo in my panic and had died. ****.

* Not an exaggeration

I also can't play Silent Hill 2 because it's too scary. I'm a pussy.

[evilmatt]

Oh yeah, I just remembered - Ecstatica was pretty damn scary too (in a bubbly sort of way ). It had quite an oppressive atmosphere, for some reason

[Smitty]

I'll second Alien: Resurrection on the PSX. Damn scary.

And of course Silent Hill 1&2. Awful.

[replicant]

I am a big coward when it comes to games. There are few survival horror games that i have managed to complete due to this. For some reason they attack my nerves, and it gets to a point that I just can't continue.

Silent Hill Series

Disturbing, and very scary. I was surprised that I managed to complete SH2. I loved SH, and SH3 yet I will never complete them I fear. In SH I got to the school, and couldnt progress any further. Man, that is one scary game.

Biohazard Series

That are scary, but they are more action based so despite a few frights heere and there they don't tangle with the nerves too much.

System Shock 2

A game which like SH, and SH3 I was unable to complete. Its a fantastic game, so well designed and as commented on the sound was amazing. However it puts the shivers up me. I need to try it again, unfortunately I dont have a copy anymore and its not available to buy anymore!

Doom

I wouldnt say they were scary due to the same reasons as SH, but they did keep you on edge. I remember one level in particular. You enter a room containing a Spider Mastermind, and a Cyberdemon on two raised platformers. You let them fight it out before taking the winner out. However the twist was the door opening and the introduction of the Arch Vile which really put the shivers up be due to the combination of his speed, fire, and noise.

Project Zero/Fatal Frame

Was playing this while working in London in the comfort of a lovely hotel room. You would think playing this in such a nice environment woudl be easy, except no it wasn't. Scared me even more than SH, and SH3 ever did so you can imagine what i did. Reset the PS2, never to touch it again.

other mentions Alien Res - fantastic game with the right balance of tension, Alien Trilogy - had one of my best gameplay experiences in that game, Alien vs Predator 1 & 2 - both are fantastic games. Strange how all the Alien based games have delivered the righ formula for tension, and excitement. Not forgetting Aliens of the Spectrum!

I find scary games strange. Well no, I find my reaction to them strange. Im not a timid character at heart, and I have no problems reading scary books, listening to scary stories, or watching scary movies. Theres just something about these games which set my nerves on fire resulting in me chickening out!

[probeater]

One word, Marathon. I was at banned from using my dads powermac (it cost untold amounts, 4 grand or something like that) as I was too young and it was too expensive so I had to make do with a hand me down performa. My brother had bought marathon but the performa in my room wasn't up to it so one day when my partents were away I snuck into the study at night time to play on my dads powermac, The combination of playing in the middle of the night alone in the house when I was very small with the lights off not knowing if my parents were going to come home any moment and also the fact that I was playing on my dads expensive work pc which I was banned from using made this already scary game the most scariest i've done ever

[Vaipon]

Having just finished SH3 a mere half an hour ago, I can say that it's got one of the most terrifying atmospheres I've ever subjected myself to in a videogame. Lights out for the entire duration, playing alone, Pro Logic sound, scary as hell. The otherworld is the most sick and twisted place imaginable, it's almost too much to bear. I'm a Konami believer once more after being disappointed by SH2. SH3 is everything I wanted it to be. Masterpiece. Just wish I'd been able to play it back when the PAL release went out.

[Kieran76]

Of all the Biohazard series Code Veronica stands out as the scariest for me. The locations, that cross dressing freak, the videos of ants eating butterflys. Proper twisted scary ****.